I am in the process of streamlining my collection a bit - trying to get reasonable after my manic phase I am well covered in most ranges, but I was wondering what you would recommend as a faster manual lens (let's say 2.0 - 2.8) in the 135-150mm range for my GH2. I have a few older lenses in that range (some 150mm c-mounts, an old 135 Hektor, old 135 Sonnar etc), but they are all 4.0 or slower and I plan on selling most of them to narrow it down to one decent lens in that range. I was looking at newer 135mm Sonnars or the Leica R 135mm Elmarit, but I am hoping there will be something a little cheaper out there? Reasonably sharp wide open and not too difficult with flares would be great.

I had a Rikenon XR 135/2.8, great images but quite heavy at 500g. I find that a 500-gram lens ± is too near my threshold, I tend to find excuses not to carry them - so I sold it. Sadly, that removes a bunch of fast telephoto lenses from my list. Pentax made several series of lenses including the Pentax-M (fully manual), -A (auto-aperture but still has aperture ring) and earlier lenses, including many with M42 threads. The M series is generally acclaimed as the most compact, which for :43: makes sense to me. The Pentax-M 135/3.5 may be a smidge slow for you but it's just my type at 270g; they also made a 150/3.5. For more speed there are -M 100mm and 120mm f/2.8s. I'd love to find the latter, 270g + built-in hood! Reviews of all these at pentaxforums site. Pentax-A 135mm is also f/2.8.

p.s. money no object? how about the 135 f/1.8 Pentax-A*? at 865g it's clearly not for me :smile:

Agree with Thearne3, the Oly OM 135mm F2.8 is a great lens. Used it for a long time on my OM-1, E-500 and E-P1, and it was nice to have a (almost) F2.8 lens with the last 2 cameras. Very sharp, nice color, easy to hand hold.

Well a faster than 2.8 is hard to find , but i will recommend 1 lens heavy yes, built like a tank yes, but delivers great pictures on M4/3 the Tamron BBAR 135 F2.5 Adaptall2 (03B). To my knowledge not a very expensive lens either.

I didn't have Oly on my radar, so that's something I will have to look into, thanks for the tip. I was thinking about the Canon FD 135/2 but that seems hard to find. Has anybody tried a Sonnar 135/2.8 on m4/3? I have a number of really nice 150mm c-mount lenses that are not bad at all, but my favorite, the Schneider 150/3.3, is a hunk of metal and glass and also comes in at over a pound in weight, even though it reasonably compact.

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